Since possible VP choices seem to be constantly brought up in other threads, I thought I'd make an official thread towards this discussion. CNN has a really cool article, outlining the pros and cons for each possible candidate.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/26/ ... index.html

Al Gore!!!!!!!!!!

Bill Richardson!!

He speaks fluent spanish and has one of the top 10 first names in the Nation. He's a Governor and can bring in the illegal and legal hispanic vote and he's not AWG.

Howard Dean is the best option for Obama.

McCain should choose Hilary Clinton.

For Obama:
Ed Rendell would give him the governor of a swing state and is Jewish which would help fight the email rumors supposedly going around trying to scare people about Obama being anti-semitic.
Jim Webb would be good except supposedly he has an incident or two in his background that women found sexist and it might look bad.
Sebilius, a midwestern woman governor and someone who has been very pro-Obama and who he reportedly likes.
Edwards, has the best message of the campaign and it clicks perfectly with the election year economy.

Rendell is dastard. I remember him saying he'd could see the SDs still choosing Clinton over Obama even though he was winning every category. B'gone with ye!

Webb I could see. He's a military man and has a diverse background.

Sebilius I've never heard of before but there's no need for Obama to pick a woman for VP.

Edwards, I feel his time has past and even though he's an excellent speaker I'm just not in the mood to listen to him anymore.

BOBBY JINDAL WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

In another thread, I stated Rendell was a good choice, but he seems to really not be interested (although it could just be posturing). Dean or Gore would be great in my opinion, but I don't see them as real possibilities.

Obama is kind of a fruition of the Dean-Lamont legacy, he is either Dean 3.0 (Lamont being 2.0) or Lamont 2.0.

Jim Webb has a Vietnamese wife.

I would love to see Obama pick Hagel because it would piss off McCain heh. I would throw Biden's name in there too since he has the foreign experience.

More good news.

The Biden machine churns like gaffes like Model T's.

Hagel would be funny. He'd be one hell of a crossover voice and would shut Lieberman up better than anybody else. I personally love Chuck Hagel, as he has intelligent foreign policy stances coupled with conservative principles. The only gripe would be on environmental issues -- I'm liberal on the environment -- but hey, no mate's perfect.

Well there is no perfect choice and besides the vp rarely decides elections. I guess he could pick Richardson or Strickland to try to win New Mexico or Ohio. Richardson would make the most sense there since he has the foreign affairs experience.

You want to pick someone from a swing state or a red state if possible, which leaves out some of these choices (like Biden and Dean).

There are a lot of good possibilities here and I have no one preference myself.

Could Webb even deliver Virginia? He barely squeaked past Monsieur Macaca for his Senate seat. Mark Warner can deliver Virginia, but that would forfeit a Senate seat as well as performance elsewhere in the country. He doesn't have enough, ah what's the word, gravitas.

I don't think Webb is read for it yet. Warner would be great but as you said it would sacrifice a seat because he would get elected to the Senate in a landslide knowing his popularity in Virginia.

Ultimately, I agree with this. I don't think there's any one best choice. I like a few of them. And I wonder if the effect of the VP choice is a bit overblown anyway.

Well the last time the VP made a difference was with LBJ back in 1960 since then it hasn't mattered.

Not for nothing, but apparently Hagel's wife supports OBAMA.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 432D82.DTL

That must be the first time in human history those six words ever been strung together in that order...

I really dig Sebelius, but someone with more foreign policy experience would probably be better. I don't think I have a clear preference for Obama.

I'd love for McCain to pick Crist. I'm dying to have a homosexual VP. But really, he's actually a decent guy. He'd be alright if McCain were to kick the bucket.

I just want him to pick Crist so that at least one good thing would come from McCain winning. FL wouldn't have to deal with Crist anymore. He's fucked up the economy here even more than it was.

oh, when i left he'd been doing okay, but it was too early, i suppose. from what i understand, he's not a slug on social issues.

Obama's taking Richardson, mark my words. Bill fills in Obama's weak spots. 1. Foreign Policy, and 2. Economy and 'Management'. The voting public like governors because they like to see someone who has experience managing infrastructure and large groups of people.

Richardson's support of Obama (early on, and breaking with his expected support for Clinton), also helps his case.

The downside is that except for New Mexico, Richardson will not deliver the Midwest because McCain himself is from the region. Had McCain been from anywhere else, you might have seen Nevada (considered swing last election) or maybe even Arizona, vote democrat. Richardson's Catholicism and ability to speak Spanish may help in Florida, though I have the distinct feeling that through the delegate fiasco Christ has already delivered Florida to the reps.

Otherwise, he's taking Strickland. Webb is a poor selection. He's been on the national stage a very short while, and Virgina is far from swing, unlike Ohio. One of Obama's strengths was already the Mid-Atlantic. He appealed to those states a lot, and I really don't see a VP from the area adding much to that already stong appeal. It is at its limit there. A VP from the area would not detract from his candidacy, it just wouldn't add much, either.

Big article in the times about Jindal, today. That is, most likely, going to be McCain's pick. I still think Huckabee has an outside shot, however.

I like Richardson a lot and I like what he brings to the table. That said, I still wonder if the "this veep delivers this state" arguments really hold any water.